Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest

Throughout the upper Río Grande bioregion, from the uplands of the
north to the more desertic and mesa lands to the south, watercourses and
their tributaries stand apart as the most defining features critical to all
forms of life, biotic and human. For centuries, this region has been a
homeland to the aboriginal peoples, the Tewa, Tiwa and Keres (Pueblo)
Indians, and the descendants of the first European settlers, the hispano
mexicanos. These cultures revere water, treasuring it as the virtual lifeblood
of the community. The upper Río Grande, the Río Chama, the upper Río
Pecos, and other rivers and creeks stand out as the dominant natural systems of this southern Rocky Mountain province where it joins the great
Chihuahuan Desert. Nestled within the canyons and valley floors, tiny villages and pueblos dot the spectacular, enchanting landscape. Their earthen
ditches, native engineering works known locally as acequias, gently divert
the precious waters to extend life into every tract and pocket of arable bottomland.
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On a comparative basis, these acequia communities aptly fit the classic
subsistence mode of water control described by Donald Worster, in his
study of irrigation societies throughout world history and civilizations:

In the first and simplest type of irrigation society, based on the local
subsistence mode, water control relies on temporary structures and
small-scale permanent works that interfere only minimally with the
natural flow of streams. The needs served by that simple technology
are basic and limited: water is diverted to grow food for direct, personal consumption.... In such cases authority over water distribu

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